Teenage boy -stretch marks.

My son who is 15 has developed stretch marks across his back just below the rib area.It started off with just one 2cm line last year, and now he has maybe 10 which are purple.

He is very athletic, has never had a spare inch of fat on him in his life, and they have developed in a really odd area. its not as if his back has suddenly got muscly and I could understand why the skin might stretch!

I am just bemused as to why he has them. If and when I have to take him to the docs for anything important I will ask about them, but anyone got any bright ideas??

Yeah, he's obviously just grown a lot rather quickly - stretchmarks are more common in teenagers than you might think.

They will eventually fade to thin silvery lines which are barely noticeable, but if he's self-conscious about them meantime Bio Oil and Palmers Cocoa Butter range for stretch marks are supposed to be very good.

My son who is 15 has developed stretch marks across his back just below the rib area.It started off with just one 2cm line last year, and now he has maybe 10 which are purple.

He is very athletic, has never had a spare inch of fat on him in his life, and they have developed in a really odd area. its not as if his back has suddenly got muscly and I could understand why the skin might stretch!

I am just bemused as to why he has them. If and when I have to take him to the docs for anything important I will ask about them, but anyone got any bright ideas??

He is growing, that's all! Now is the time to make sure he moisturisers on a regular basis, stretch can only be removed by laser and then not even guarantee of removal but with oil and or cream they will fade as another poster has mentioned. He could also look at increasing his omega 3 intake in his diet!

Let him (though we weren't shown the gym until end of year 9 at school, even though my voice was still high then :S) - provided he doesn't overdo it whilst he's growing he won't harm himself and the better fitness will always be good for him!

Weirdly, I probably grew quicker than him at that age and never seemed to get them

Let him (though we weren't shown the gym until end of year 9 at school, even though my voice was still high then :S) - provided he doesn't overdo it whilst he's growing he won't harm himself and the better fitness will always be good for him!

Weirdly, I probably grew quicker than him at that age and never seemed to get them

I believe it to do with an array of factors including genes! U just got lucky mate

This is common but for some reason not talked about in the growing process, there has been a fair few people caught out wondering if this is normal or not. I think it should be put into the leaflets along with hair in strange places, voice dropping and finding a new friend to play with.

This is common but for some reason not talked about in the growing process, there has been a fair few people caught out wondering if this is normal or not. I think it should be put into the leaflets along with hair in strange places, voice dropping and finding a new friend to play with.

Excellent point. I had no idea youngsters could get stretch marks in this way and we ended up going to the doctors because my son was worried about them.

Stretch marks were the last thing he needed at the time and I wish there had been information about them as you say so he at least knew they were common to youngsters his age.